For some companies putting as much branding on a product as possible is
essential to their marketing plan. It’s easy to see why this approach has appeal,
particularly in sectors like fashion, where the brand and the product are deeply
intertwined. Would people fork out thousands of rands for a Louis Vuitton
handbag if there was no indication on it as to which company made it? When it
comes to digital displays or other products that are intended expressly to
advertise things other than themselves, one has to ask whether this approach
still makes sense.
At PVision, our decision not to brand our products is deliberate. We don’t believe
people purchasing our products to use as tools to communicate information
should be forced to promote our brand at the same time. The most important
thing is their message, and branding dilutes that message. Some of our clientele
operate content networks that supply display materials, and they may want to
advertise their own content delivery services on their devices. If we have a
PVision logo on the display we end up getting those calls.
There’s another, less obvious reason we’ve forgone branding: it results in a
cleaner looking display and means a display can be installed and operated in
either portrait or landscape orientation.
Digital displays are particular tools intended for particular purposes in specific
locations and thus don’t gain anything with branding. In the early days we did
brand our displays, but we found there were no benefits to doing so, perhaps
because we don’t sell direct to the public. Moreover, we’ve found that our clients
respond well to the the lack of branding because it doesn’t imply an allegiance
from them.
It’s almost impossible to do away with branding entirely, and when you start up
our displays there is an image with our name on it, but its only clients — and not
their customers — who see that.
From a traditional marketing perspective this lack of branding or removal or
brand equity from our products seems counterintuitive, but unlike a handbag,
people don’t buy our products so that others will know where it comes from. Our
clients are promoting us through their purchases, and in some instances that
actually makes our offerings more appealing.
Further, this approach speaks to the quality of our hardware. There’s no need to
brand it because its performance and specifications speak for themselves.
Some companies have gotten wise to the degree of “free advertising’ branded
products result in and we’ve heard of instances where companies operating
public spaces have wanted to bill hardware companies for the advertising
branding their products gives them, resulting in logos having to be removed — a
potentially messy and damaging process — or hastily covering them.
Removing branding from our products hasn’t hurt our business at all; if anything,
it’s strengthened it by setting PVision displays apart from rival products. Once a
client has bought a product they shouldn’t be forced to implicitly advertise it as
well through the branding on it. At the end of the day, the quality of a product
should be advertisement enough.
David Ross, Pvision Director
